Copacetic Christmas for Less
Here's
our selection of specials & sale-priced gift items.
COMICS
The
Awake Fieldby Ron Regé, Jr.
This one is our all time favorite work by the comics brút artist par excellénce, Ron Rege, Jr.. It is a beautifully drawn, designed and produced square format volume. Printed in two colors, the color field is employed with a nuanced delicacy that is integral to the effect that this work achieves as it penetrates the reader's senses. Bound with a full color flexi cover and endpapers, this book is an aesthetic treat and a bargain to boot. Ron Regé, Jr. is channelling the spirit of the 20th century American painter, Charles Burchfield into 21st century comics. Like Burchfield's paintings, Regé's comics in this volume fill the viewer/reader with a sense of wonder at the impossible beauty and strange otherness of nature. His work really puts you there, it communicates, it catalyzes neurons to fire in new patterns that trigger new thoughts and new ways of seeing the world as an... awake field. There's nothing out there in any medium to compare to Regé's work. We say: a must for any comis æsthete!
retail price - $7.95 copacetic price - $6.75
Incanto
by Frank Santoro
A one-of-a-kind piece by the creator of Storeyville and Chimera, Incanto is a sketchbook dream diary boldly printed in black on a ever shifting background of sun orange and sea green that peels back the layers of consciousness revealing a zone of archetypes drawing equally on pop culture residues and genetic memories. It is also a formal meditation that simultaneously deconstructs the creative process. Incanto is a work that you'll want to take your time with, to savor.
retail price - $5.00 copacetic price - $4.00
Portraits from Life (copacetic favorite)
by David Collier
This book presents the strongest of David Collier's work and is one of our perennial best-sellers here at Copacetic. It is filled with extremely engaging stories of the lives of minor, obscure and offbeat Canadian figures. Some of these are full fledged biographies, such as the fascinating account of Humphrey Osmond, the Canadian scientist who was an early researcher into psychotropic drugs and reputedly coined the term "psychedelic." Then there's the life story of Ethel Catherwood, the Olympic high jumper known as the Saskatchewan Lily, who ended up infamous and reclusive. A more tightly focused tale is that of "Grey Owl," an enigmatic British man who managed to convince those he came into contact with in the Canadian north that he was a North American Indian. The acme of the collection is the tale of David Midgaard, a Saskatchewan man arrested as a teenager and imprisoned for decades for a rape and murder he didn't commit. This is a gripping tale told in the inimitable Collier fashion, wherein he weaves his own life into the tale of another, and so really makes it hit home hard. The stories in this volume were key to pioneering the comics journalism movement. They amply illustrate why the most notable of the new comics journalists, Joe Sacco once said, "I don't think there's a cartoonist whose every new work I approach with such anticipation as David Collier."
retail price - $12.95 - copacetic ¡SALE! price - $8.95
Houseboundby Rick Geary
Though he is better known now as the creator of a series of Victorian murder mysteries, back in the day Rick Geary was (more or less) the Richard Brautigan of comics. He pioneered the genre of short, off-kilter stories that, by virtue of their peculiar slant on the events they portray, continue to provide readers with fresh perspectives on the mundane. The stories contained in Housebound are, on average, over twenty years old, but they are as unique now as they were when he first laid Rapidiograph pen to paper. Quirky, entertaining and fun, this book is a one-of-a-kind* treasure, and now it's a bargain to boot!
retail price - $11.95 - copacetic ¡SALE! price - $4.95
The
Summer of Love by Debbie Drechsler
The Summer of Love is a poignant rite-of-passage graphic novel that lays bare -- in pen and ink on paper -- one soul as it navigates the roiling waters of the transition from girl to woman, revealing the angst, lust, love and confusion produced by the raging hormones of adolescence. The entire book is beautifully printed in two colors: a flat olive and a light mahogany, that work together serve to provide a unique reading experience -- no black ink anywhere! Peggy Orenstein, the author of Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap, has this to say: "Debbie Drechsler's is one of the most authentic, profound voices of female culture in any medium. Summer of Love perfectly captures the daily anxieties and mundane traumas of coming of age in the suburbs."
144 pages • two-color
retail price - $16.95 - copacetic ¡SALE! price - $6.95
The Golem’s Mighty
Swingby James Sturm
The capstone to Sturm's Americana Trilogy, The Golem's Mighty Swing is his longest sustained work to date. Set in the 1920s, it tells the story of the barnstorming baseball team, the Stars of David who travel the country trying to make a living playing the game that they love, but they're having a hard time at it so they decide to add the "Golem" to the team. It's a story of the early days of baseball, life in these United States, ethnic identity and the melting pot, and more. The work offers the best of both worlds: there's a lot to dig your intellectual teeth into, and it's an engaging read. Time Magazine named it the best graphic novel of 2001. Bonus Fact: author, James Sturm currently heads the first ever institute of higher learning devoted solely to the study of all things comics: The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.
retail price - $16.95 - copacetic ¡SALE! price - $8.95
Reflecting Culture: The Evolution
of American Super Heroesby Gail Stavitsky
w/ contributions by Michael Uslan, Patterson Sims & Twig Johnson
Published by The Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey, on the occcasion of the exhibition of the same name that closed in January, this catalogue of the exhibition is the most intelligent yet assembled on the history, function and significance of the comic book super hero yet produced. This 68 page, 8 1/2" x 11 1/4 " volume is filled with crisp, full color, high definition reproductions of a wide range of original art and original
editions
of comic books from the golden age to the present. Divided into
six sections -- "Super Heroes Go To War," "Cold War, Conformity, and
Censorship," "Questioning Authority," "American Indian Super Heroes,
Diversity and Moral Complexity," and "Super Heroes at Ground Zero" --
each
of which is introduced by a concise essay placing the works in
the approproriate context. The organization of the exhibit and
the insights demonstrated by the essays demonstrate an impressive grasp
of the material and left us
feeling both grateful that cultural institutions are finally beginning
to give more than lip service to the important role that comic books
and super heroes have played -- and continue to play -- in the
culture and history of America, and impressed yet again by the fact
that quality, groundbreaking work can be found in the most unexpected
places -- like Montclair, NJ. Take a look at the NY
Times review
(complete with slideshow), for a little more "color." These
catalogues are made available here at a substantial discount off their
original price as the result of a special, one-time purchase from the
museum. We think it's a price worth taking advantage of for
anyone on your list who likes to classic American comic books treated
with the respect they deserve.retail price - $15.00 copacetic special price - $8.88
We just got our hands on a case of brand new copies of The Best American Comics 2006, the first volume in the series, for a super low price and we are passing the savings on to you! This too is a smartly designed volume packed to the brim. It was edited by Harvey Pekar and you can read more about it here.
retail price - $22.00
copacetic super special price - $8.88
BOOKS
Cometbus
#51: The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah
by Aaron Cometbus
Are you looking for
someting unique, and new and not available everywhere else (and, to the
best of our knowledge, anywhere else in Pittsburgh)? THis should
do nicely. Are you looking for a bargain? This is a bargain! A book
length excursion
into the people and places that together make
up the history of the Berkeley, CA alternative bookstores centered on
Telegraph Avenue that played no small part in the history of the 1960s
counter-culture explosion that reverberates to this day. Aaron
focuses primarily on the personalities involved, and there's a
veritable deluge of empathy here, so be prepared to be carried
away.
retail
price - $3.00 copacetic price - $2.75
Splendid Recipes (DVD)